Customer Service Strategies

A customer strategy is focused on obtaining, serving and retaining specific customer segments.
Developing a customer strategy involves selecting a target market, creating products and
services that match your target customers, and delivering an exceptional customer experience.
Developing a robust customer strategy for each of the target groups your company serves can
give you an advantage over competitors in the marketplace (David Ingram, bizfluent)

For a customer service strategy to be successful, it has to be implemented in every area of the
organization. Customer service strategy needs to be aligned with the company’s overall vision,
values and mission.

It is important to reward customers for their dedication to your organization. Successful

companies create programs to build loyalty among their customers by offering incentives in
exchange for return visits.

Scotia has segmented their customers as follows:

 Personal/Retail

 Corporate & Commercial

Personal/Retail

The Retail segment is the segment that is familiar to most customers, it includes in-branch
operations. Products involved in retail banking includes deposits, credit cards, and mortgages.

Corporate & Commercial

This segment deals with corporate and institutional clients and is associated with investment
banking. Activities include corporate lending, sales and trading, and mergers and acquisitions.

Scotiabank has enhanced its service offering to meet the distinct needs of their affluent customer
segment through the expansion of Premium Banking to their Mandeville and their Fairview,
branches. The company has focused on equipping its employees to provide excellent customer
service and effectively resolve customer complaints at the first point of contact.

Scotiabank’s Small Business Unit has collaborated with the Micro Small and Medium
Enterprise (MSME) Alliance to provide training to MSME operators. One MSME operator had
this to say about Scotiabank, “Scotiabank’s Small Business Unit has become a forerunner in the
banking sector, because it is more customer-friendly. By listening to us and addressing our
concerns in a practical way, it stands true to its slogan – Working together to grow your
business.”
From as far back as 2009 Scotiabank had implemented their Counselor for Service complaints
management system. With the assistance of this new management tool, staff are able to capture
and log grievances electronically, refer issues to supervisors or other departments for appropriate
action where necessary, and provide timely responses to our customers,” says Miss Walrond,
Senior Vice President, Customer Experience, Technology Innovation & Projects. The system
allows their Customer Experience team to assess more broadly, the root causes of complaints and
the respective units to which to direct those complaints. As a results of this tracking system,
Scotiabank has seen upwards of 90% of customer complaints being addressed within targeted
time frames.

Scotiabank has developed a system called The Pulse, it is a customer feedback system, this
system helps the company to quickly get a feel of customer’s grouses and preferences. Through
the use of The Pulse, the company was able to identify customers’ growing preference for the
convenience of digital channels which offer a more cost effective way to conduct transactions.